{"id":631715,"date":"2026-09-21T19:54:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-21T19:54:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/631715\/"},"modified":"2026-09-21T19:54:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-21T19:54:10","slug":"dissident-republican-colm-murphy-was-spider-at-centre-of-web-omagh-bombing-inquiry-hears-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/631715\/","title":{"rendered":"Dissident republican Colm Murphy was \u2018spider at centre of web\u2019, Omagh bombing inquiry hears \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dissident republican Colm Murphy \u201csat like a spider at the centre of the web of the plan to detonate a bomb in Omagh<\/a>\u201d, the inquiry into the 1998 atrocity was told on Monday. <\/p>\n

More than 10 \u201ckey individuals\u201d were identified by the lead counsel to the inquiry, Paul Greaney, who outlined a \u201cworking hypothesis\u201d that they played \u201csignificant\u201d roles in the bombing. <\/p>\n

These included Murphy, former Real IRA leader Michael McKevitt, and Seamus Daly and Liam Campbell \u2013 both convicted of Real IRA membership \u2013 who were all found liable for the bombing in a civil court, as well as Seamus McKenna, who was found not liable. Murphy, McKevitt and McKenna have since died. <\/p>\n

\u201cOur working hypothesis is that, contrary to that finding, he, Seamus McKenna, played a key role,\u201d Greaney said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere are sound reasons to believe that Seamus Daly was in the scout car with a mobile telephone … quite possibly accompanied by at least one other person and that his job was to keep in contact with the bomb car, alerting the occupants of that vehicle to any issues on the route ahead. <\/p>\n

\u201cFurthermore, there are sound reasons to believe that Seamus McKenna was in the bomb car with a mobile telephone … accompanied by another man,\u201d Greaney said. <\/p>\n

The Real IRA \u201cwas responsible for the bombing\u201d but, in light of a claim originating from McKevitt that it had been a joint operation with the Continuity IRA, \u201cthe working hypothesis … is that, at an organisational level, both the Real IRA and Continuity IRA planned and carried out the Omagh bombing.\u201d <\/p>\n

A total of 31 people, including unborn twins, died and hundreds were injured when a car bomb planted by the Real IRA exploded in the centre of Omagh on August 15th, 1998.<\/p>\n

The inquiry into the atrocity, which opened in 2024 under Alan Turnbull, was ordered by the UK government to examine whether the bombing could reasonably have been prevented by British state authorities. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Father of Omagh bombing victim concerned at delay to next phase of inquiry hearingsOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Last year it heard emotional and graphic testimony from the relatives of the victims, the injured and others present on the day of the bombing, including the emergency services. <\/p>\n

Its third chapter, which opened on Monday after a six-month delay, will examine how the bombing was carried out and who was responsible. <\/p>\n

It will hear from forensic and other expert witnesses and police and British army officers, as well as a pre-recorded statement of evidence from a senior Garda detective, which is expected to be heard later this week. <\/p>\n

In his introductory remarks on Monday, Greaney gave an outline of the material to be explored in this chapter of the inquiry, including the theft of the bomb car in Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan, and a \u201ctest run\u201d over the Border the day before the bombing. <\/p>\n

It also included a detailed plotting of phone calls from multiple individuals believed to be involved in the atrocity, which is based on cell tower data. The inquiry watched a graphic tracing the progress of the \u201cbomb car\u201d and \u201cscout car\u201d to Omagh and back across the Border after the explosion. <\/p>\n

The senior barrister also gave an update on the disclosure of Irish material to the inquiry, revealing that 756 documents, comprising more than 40,000 pages, had been disclosed to the inquiry\u2019s core participants as a result of a Memorandum of Understanding signed with the Government of Ireland. <\/p>\n

At a hearing earlier this year, the \u201cstate of disclosure of material from the Republic of Ireland\u201d was given as one of the reasons for the six-month delay to the opening of Chapter Three. <\/p>\n

However, Greaney on Monday said there should be \u201cno doubts about whether the Government of Ireland has provided substantial disclosure to the inquiry. It has.\u201d <\/p>\n

He also said core members of the inquiry team had been able to read \u201csensitive\u201d Irish Government material. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe inquiry legal team is grateful for this disclosure from the Government of Ireland,\u201d Greaney said, adding that it \u201cprovides the basis for significant portions of the evidence\u201d that will be heard in this stage of the process. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe inquiry legal team believes a relationship of meaningful co-operation has developed between the inquiry and the Government of Ireland.\u201d <\/p>\n

The inquiry continues. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dissident republican Colm Murphy \u201csat like a spider at the centre of the web of the plan to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":631716,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,27238,43,268120],"class_list":["post-631715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-irish-republican-army","tag-news","tag-omagh-bombing-inquiry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=631715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631715\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/631716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=631715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=631715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=631715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}